The 61st Annual Dinner Meeting for Central California Almond Growers Association occurred on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, at Pardini’s Banquet Hall in Fresno, CA. Our Chairman, Jeff McKinney, and President & CEO, Michael Kelley, provided membership and industry guests with reports and updates about the cooperative.

The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) has released an updated schedule of reevaluations for certain pesticides.  Food and Agricultural Code section 12824 requires the CDPR to continuously evaluate pesticides currently registered in California. One of the ways DPR satisfies this mandate is through reevaluation.  DPR conducts pesticide reevaluations where, after investigating reported episodes or other information, the department determines that “a significant adverse impact has occurred or is likely to occur.”  In some cases, a risk assessment may be conducted as a part of a reevaluation.  During the reevaluation, the department may determine that additional restrictions on use of the pesticide are necessary.  Mitigation may require the development and adoption of regulations through the rulemaking process, label changes, or other control measures including cancellation.  If additional mitigation is needed, DPR is subject to applicable established timelines.  In accordance with that requirement, DPR is publishing the estimated completion times for all current reevaluations (see “Active Reevaluations” table below). Individual reevaluations with statutorily imposed timelines are also noted below. Scientific assessment is necessary to determine if there are pesticide use scenarios that require mitigation.  CDPR will now be providing annual updates on its progress, allowing for better resolution on specific timelines.

•  Active Reevaluations

On November 6, 2024, the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) initiated a reevaluation of pesticide products containing the active ingredient paraquat dichloride (paraquat) as required by the California State Legislature in Assembly Bill (AB) 1963, which was passed last year. Following evaluation of submitted human health and environmental data, DPR drafted preliminary reports detailing the findings of the scientific review.  DPR is accepting public comments on these reports for 45 days following their release. These preliminary reports do not constitute a determination of whether additional restrictions are necessary because of the reevaluation. DPR will issue a determination on the need for any potential restriction on paraquat use in the future.  Interested persons may submit comments pertaining to the preliminary paraquat human health and ecological reports no later than February 13, 2025.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is opening a 60-day public comment period on a proposed rule to list Suckley’s cuckoo bumble bee as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. This determination also serves as the 12-month finding on a petition to list Suckley’s cuckoo bumble bee.  The Suckley’s cuckoo bumble bee depends on other bumble bee hosts for its survival and raising of young. It has been found in various habitat types including prairies, grasslands, meadows, woodlands and agricultural and urban areas. The bee has a broad historical distribution across North America and has been documented in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, and 11 Canadian territories and provinces. The last confirmed sighting in the United States was in 2016 in Oregon.  Suckley’s cuckoo bumble bee is an important indicator species for the health of pollinators and native floral communities. In addition, this species’ parasitic nature is very unique among bees, with social parasites making up less than 1% of all bee species. They are different from brood parasites, which only attack the brood of their host, because social parasites rely on the entire colony. Female cuckoo bumble bees invade host bumble bee nests where they will often eliminate the host queen, destroy host eggs, and eject host larvae from the nest.  The public comment period on the proposed rule opens Tuesday, December 17th, 2024, and closes Tuesday, February 18th, 2025.  The Suckley’s Cuckoo bumblebee is one of the four species of bumblebees that were part of the lawsuit the Association participated in a couple of years ago.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently updated its Spanish Translation Guide for Pesticide Labeling, effective December 26, 2024. This updated guide provides important resources for translating pesticide product labels into Spanish, ensuring better accessibility, and enhancing communication regarding pesticide risks by providing clarity for Spanish-speaking workers.

The guide includes several key updates, such as:

• Restricted use of pesticides;
• Misuse statements;
• First aid and precautionary statement label language;
• Personal protective equipment (PPE) label statements;
• New sections on engineering controls, environmental hazards, and physical or chemical hazards; and
• Storage and pesticide container disposal instructions.

As part of the requirements set by PRIA 5, pesticide registrants must translate all sections of the label outlined in the updated Spanish Translation Guide beginning in 2025. Registrants who have already translated the new sections and verified the accuracy of their translations as ‘true and accurate’ are not required to revise those parts of the label.

To access the full, revised Spanish Translation Guide, visit the EPA’s official website: EPA Spanish Translation Guide for Pesticide Labeling.

Earlier this week, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced an update to the State Water Project (SWP) allocation forecast for 2025. The allocation has increased to 15 percent of requested supplies, up from the initial allocation forecast of 5 percent announced earlier this month. The SWP provides water to 29 public water agencies that serve 27 million Californians.  DWR is crediting strong storms in late November and early December that have helped boost statewide precipitation to just above average for this time of year. Reservoir levels have also increased because of the storms. The initial allocation forecast announced on December 2 had not accounted for these storms because the data was not yet available to water managers.  “The past several weeks has brought welcome rain and snow to Northern California and these improved conditions have allowed the State Water Project to increase the allocation forecast to the benefit of millions of Californians,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth. “While we typically wait to provide an update until January, we felt it is important to let our State Water Contractors know of the increase as soon as possible to allow them to better plan their water supply for the year ahead.”  The next update will likely come in January and will use information from the first snow surveys of the season.

On January 1, 2025 all agricultural workers will be able to receive overtime pay according to the 8-hour day/40-hour workweek standard similar to other industries.  With the final year of the phase in, all employers must now ensure they are calculating overtime at 8 hours/day and 40 hours/week for work performed in 2025. Additionally, all agricultural employers must pay double the regular rate of pay after 12 hours in a workday.

The California Volkswagen (VW) Zero-Emission Freight and Marine (ZEFM) Program is now open, offering up to $25 million in funding to owners of equipment based in California. The following zero-emissions projects are eligible:

• Repowering marine vessels, including ferries, tugboats, and towboats to zero-emission;
• Replacing heavy-lift forklifts (with a lift capacity of 8,001 lbs. or greater) with zero-emission alternatives; and
• Replacing cargo handling equipment including terminal tractors with zero-emission alternatives.

Applications are being accepted on a first-come, first-served basis until January 22, 2025, at 4 PM PDT. To date, over $45 million of the program’s $70 million allocation has been awarded to eligible projects from previous solicitations.

Start your application  today at Zero-Emission Freight and Marine Projects (californiavwtrust.org).

This solicitation includes several key updates:

• Qualifying projects are eligible for the highest possible grant amount, limited only by the total vehicle cost and prior equipment usage.
• The definition of “port” has been expanded to include river ports, railyards, freight terminals, intermodal facilities, and freight corridors.
• “Ferry” now also includes water taxis.
• All marine vessel repower projects must submit proof of their submitted ZEAT applications to CARB as part of their VW ZEFM application.
• This solicitation does not include funds for Airport Ground Support Equipment (GSE).
• CARB’s Clean Off-Road Equipment (CORE) Voucher Incentive Project does currently have funds available, please visit the CORE website if you wish to apply.

Upcoming Webinar

There is an informational webinar to review program requirements and the application process on Wednesday, January 8 2025, at 2 PM PDT. Register now.

California law gradually increases the statewide minimum wage and requires an automatic increase in the minimum wage of up to 3.5% to account for any increase in inflation over 7% as determined by the Consumer Price Index.  On August 1, 2024, the California Department of Finance Director officially certified that beginning January 1, 2025, California’s minimum wage will increase from $16 per hour to $16.50 per hour for all employers, regardless of size.  This hourly increase also affects the minimum salary requirements for full-time exempt employees, which currently is $66,560 per year in gross wages ($5,546.67 per month). Beginning January 1, 2025, the minimum salary for a full-time exempt employee will be $68,640 per year in gross wages ($5,720 per month).

As you are aware the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is moving full speed ahead on their “zero emissions” goals for California, including replacing all combustion vehicles and equipment by replacing them with electric or hydrogen vehicles or equipment.  This includes all trucks and forklifts.  The Association is convinced the infrastructure to meet such demand simply isn’t there.  Up until a meeting last year hosted by the Association last year in Modesto, CARB and the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) were convinced there would be no problem meeting the demand.  But after that meeting, CARB, CEC and the CPUC admitted they did not know how much demand would be from agriculture, nor did they know when it would be needed or where.  At that same meeting the utilities, PG&E and SCE, also admitted they did not know, and they were already having “system-wide constraints”.  In response, CARB and the CEC have contracted Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to work with agriculture to conduct a comprehensive survey of agricultural operations (farms, packing houses, cotton gins, nut hullers and processors, etc.) to see how much electricity demand would be needed to comply with these new regulations, when it would be need by, and to the zip code level where it would be needed.   

The survey is anonymous and only to zip code level.  Your company or farm name and address is never entered or revealed.  We are working with several agricultural organizations on this survey to demonstrate what the true demand and need would be to meet these regulations.  Without this data, CARB will move forward on all regulations as planned.  Should you have any questions, please contact our office.  We encourage you to participate.  Here is the survey:

https://bit.ly/4gpOPvB